The Franciscan University of Steubenville

The school is in a very ugly city, not much to do, and with a rather high crime problem. But, the school doesn't really try to be a refuge or a solution. It doesn't mix much with the town at all, and, since I worked in town and lived off campus, and had also lived in Steubenville through high school, I noticed that instead of reaching out the school generally just treated the town like a bunch of gang bangers and hicks. The elitism became more apparent in the college itself. The school is mostly filled with well-to-do, predominantly white students and faculty. Many students are so spoiled that they would become very mean when things didn't go their way. I was yelled at by a girl for not giving her a ride to Pittsburgh to see a concert, despite there being a snow storm. She never even offered to pay for gas. I also didn't come from a well-known area family, so I was often ignored in groups and classes. I had a scary health collapse while at school and instead of helping me I was simply failed for the work I missed with in the hospital. That was my number one reason for leaving school.

The political atmosphere is extremely strange, as well. It is not uncommon for lecturers to say things like "Marxism is paganism" or to say that in the future online-educated pseudo-teachers will take your kids away for voting Republican (this was an actual lecture point). One professor even cried in class because the values of the Middle Ages were over and "Christendom" was no more. Blanket condemnation of left, liberal, feminist, or non-Western thought is common, and generally considered satanic or a "culture of death". One professor casually said that he had read Eastern thinkers and they just "had nothing on the West". Evolution is treated as suspect, and one professor even said that all scientists really do is measure things, and that science can't explain anything. Tolkien is considered the greatest modern writer, placed ahead of Joyce, Woolf, and basically everyone else, and if you're not weirdly into Tolkien and Chesterton, you're basically called a bad Catholic. There are lots of discussions among students as to what women should do (ie should women wear veils? What is too immodest? Should women sing rock music?), and the modesty culture is so strong that wearing anything short of denim skirts and baggy shirts is seen as extreme punk. The core curricula of writers is completely dominated by reactionary trends of being as white-male as possible. Even supposedly feminist teachers had really flabby understandings of thought, and spent more time talking about the amazing writing of (I'm not kidding!) breakfast food commercials, than great literature. Ideas like "Harry Potter creates satanism" were common, many students and even a professor or more openly supported fascist dictator and antisemite Franco, and interrupting lectures to talk about internet conspiracies concerning a new world order of satan were not uncommon. Also, when there was a good professor, these were usually marginalized and I think my favorite professor was fired after I left. I'm not sure what eventually happened, but I know that this was the plan.

Furthermore, the households are just weird. I lost so many friends, people I really loved, because they joined households and vanished. It was like they joined a cult. I'd call and see if they wanted to hang out, and they told me that they couldn't because they had to be with their household sisters. If we ever did see each other, it was very brief.

On top of it all, there's not much to do.I started my own group of like-minded people to discuss writing and art. If you have the gumption, that's possible. But, I became so sick that this didn't last. If you don't have the health and energy to make your own fun, there really isn't any. Unless you want to listen to bad music and watch people roll around on the ground because they were "slain in the spirit" (I suggest watching this because it is very, very scary!), or join a group to talk about chastity and waiting for a husband to be your knight and hero, or learn elvish, then you probably won't have much to do. I went to another very conservative, very religious school, but it was practically communist compared to FUS. Now, finally, I am at a totally secular grad school,and I actually feel a lot kinder toward religion here than I did in undergrad.

Honestly, it's just kind of creepy. Professors teach that Mary never had her hymen broken because a broken hymen is the physical part of virginity, for pity's sake! (Last I looked the physical part of virginity was the not having sex part, as sex is a physical act, and the hymen can break through all manner of non-sexual activities, including climbing trees!)Women are killed to this very day because of this nonsensical idea of hymen-breakage being tied to virginity, and, frankly, I don't want to discuss the Blessed Virgin's vagina. Fetishes about Mary are kind of extreme, with one professor in particular getting creepy about her birthing habits and how beautiful she is. I know him, actually, and he also brought people to Europe to be healed from visions, and was involved with stock-piling food for the apocalypse during the Y2K panic. So, yeah, he's not very sane. There's just a lot of control. Asking too many questions isn't generally lauded, every aspect of your life (how you dress, think, et cetera) is criticized under the guise of "modesty", you're not supposed to read certain books/watch certain films/listen to certain music, and there's just a lot of fear. Many lectures just dissolved into "Mark my words, within your lifetime there will be Christian martyrdom everywhere in America, and a satanic new order of feminist New Age liberalism, and home schoolers will be deported, and yadda yadda!" So, basically, a lot of martyr complexes and a lot of paranoia. They act as though, if you leave, you're swimming with sharks. They use fear to keep people there,and so a lot of people just stay after graduation... even though Steubenville has basically no jobs. It's kind of like a cult. I wouldn't suggest it.